# Quick Start

### Running VIA Node in Kubernetes

Prerequisites:

* Install `Helm`.

```bash
helm install [RELEASE_NAME] oci://ghcr.io/vianetwork/charts/via-external-node
```

For more information please see the VIA Node Helm chart [documentation](https://github.com/vianetwork/via-charts/blob/main/charts/via-external-node/README.md). 

### Running VIA Node locally

Prerequisites:

* Install `docker compose` and `Docker`.

To start a testnet instance, run:

```sh
git clone git@github.com:vianetwork/via-core.git
git checkout fix/ext-node-testnet-setup
cd docs/via_guides/external-node
docker compose --file testnet-external-node-docker-compose.ym up
```

To reset its state, run:

```sh
cd docs/via_guides/external-node
docker compose --file testnet-external-node-docker-compose.yml down --volumes
```

You can see the status of the VIA Node (after recovery) in [local grafana dashboard](http://localhost:3000/d/0/external-node).

The HTTP JSON-RPC API can be accessed on port `3060` and WebSocket API can be accessed on port `3061`.

{% hint style="info" %}
The node will recover from a snapshot on it's first run, this may take up to 5-10 minutes. Before the recovery is finished, the API server won't serve any requests.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
If you need access to historical transaction data, please use recovery from DB dumps.
{% endhint %}

#### System Requirements

{% hint style="info" %}
This configuration is only for nodes that use snapshots recovery (the default for docker-compose setup), for requirements for nodes running from DB dump see [running](https://docs.vianetwork.xyz/via-node/running) page. DB dumps are a way to start VIA Node with full historical transactions history.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Those are requirements for a freshly started node and the the state grows.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
To stop state growth, you can enable state pruning by uncommenting `EN_PRUNING_ENABLED: true` in docker compose file, you can read more about pruning in [pruning](https://docs.vianetwork.xyz/via-node/pruning) page.
{% endhint %}

* 4 GB of RAM and a relatively modern CPU
* 20 GB of storage for testnet nodes
* 100 Mbps connection (1 Gbps+ recommended)